COVID-19 vaccine information hub

The Australian Government Department of Health (DoH) has sought expressions of interest (EOI) from accredited general practices to take part in the planned delivery of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Phase 1b.

More than 4,600 practices that expressed interest in participating in the vaccine roll-out have been approved. The DoH, via Primary Health Networks, has now begun advising those approved practices.

Health Minister Greg Hunt  has announced that Australia has received another shipment of Pfizer vaccine doses, bringing the total to 443,000 in addition to the 300,000 AstraZeneca doses. This means Australia has so far received a total of 733,000 doses from overseas.

'In terms of the distribution to the states, I am very pleased to be able to announce that over the current ten-day period, we will make almost 300,000 doses available to the states and that will be the two distributions of Pfizer and one of AstraZeneca.'

Minister Hunt said the number of doses distributed to the states [and territories] would be as follows: NSW: 86,000; Vic: 76,000; Qld: ~60,000; WA: 30,000; SA: 29,000; Tas: just > 9,000; NT: 3,700; and ACT: 5,100.

'As we speak, as of last night [Monday 1 March], there had been 41,907 doses administered around the country. That included 13,348 Commonwealth aged care residents at 158 facilities.'

More than one million Australian-produced doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine are ready to be released by the end of the month. Melbourne-based company CSL is manufacturing the vaccine and said its current March timeline was well ahead of schedule.

The first Australian Government-funded training modules for the COVID-19 vaccination workforce, including for immunisation providers and non-clinical and administration staff, is now available.

The Australian Government has partnered with the Australian College of Nursing to develop and deliver the free and accredited training modules for all COVID-19 vaccination providers. The training is being provided free to all authorised COVID-19 vaccination providers.

Per Australian Government advice to SHPA, hospital pharmacists assisting immunisation professionals with supply chain logistics, storage, dose preparation and labelling, will need to access all six core modules.

To access the modules:

• Hospital pharmacists
  → select User type: As an Immunising Professional with an AHPRA number
   
• Technicians
  → select User type: As an Immunising Professional without an AHPRA number

SHPA is aware that the registration page then asks users to select which immunisation course they have undertaken, however choosing the N/A option will allow you to register with the training modules.

Other updates on the COVID-19 Vaccine program

• The Australian Government Department of Health is in the final stages of the selection process for General Practices that will take part in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
   
• The Australian Government has developed a stakeholder pack for multicultural audiences with information on COVID-19 vaccines.
  This pack contains in-language communication resources and key messages to inform and educate everyone in Australia about COVID-19 vaccines.
  Click on the links in the stakeholder pack to access translated COVID-19 vaccines information. Resources include audio files, videos, social media content, posters and factsheets that you can download and share with your patient community.

On 2 February 2021 during his address to the National Press Club, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced further details of the Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Strategy.

Key points:

• Majority of Australians will be vaccinated with the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, with CSL’s Melbourne manufacturing facility having capacity to produce enough for Australia.
• Vaccinations remain on track for distribution to priority groups (Phase 1A) by late February, despite ongoing concerns regarding vaccine export controls from Europe.
• The aim is for every Australian to have the opportunity to be vaccinated by October.
• $1.9 billion of new support for the vaccine rollout on top of $4.4 billion for vaccine purchasing adding up to a total of $6.3 billion.
• Hospitals, GPs, Pharmacies, Respiratory Clinics, Aboriginal Health Services and a specialist surge workforce are being involved in ensuring all Australians can be vaccinated.
• The TGA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine made Australia among the few countries in the world to provide formal approval of the vaccine and not just for emergency use.
• COVID-19 vaccine rollout: Pharmacy participation in Phase 2A (from May 2021) – EOIs from community pharmacies is open.

In the first few months of the vaccination program, it is expected that there will be limited doses of the vaccine available in Australia. In Phase 1a, the priority groups will be offered the vaccines at designated vaccination hubs in the first instance. In NSW, these hubs will be located at specific sites with the required storage, vaccine handling and administration capacity. In Phase 1a, NSW Health is planning for vaccination hubs located at RPA, Westmead and Liverpool hospitals, followed by Hornsby, St George, Nepean, Newcastle, Wollongong, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga hospitals.

• A Tasmanian Vaccination Emergency Operations Centre (TVEOC) has been activated to manage the rollout.
• EOIs for Registered Nurses interested in joining Tasmania’s COVID-19 vaccination has opened.
• The Tasmanian Government will soon be contacting pharmacists in Tasmania seeking expressions of interest from them to be involved in the vaccination rollout program*.

* This may no longer be required given national EOI has opened.

Pharmacist immunisers approved to administer vaccine in Victoria

Victoria's Department of Health has given regulatory approval for pharmacist immunisers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Victoria. Pharmacists in Victoria who have completed immuniser training, hold current first aid and CPR certificates – and have completed the Commonwealth COVID-19 Vaccination training, as well as any other required training – may be able to administer the vaccine. The Health Secretary also made a public health emergency order allowing registered non-immuniser pharmacists, intern pharmacists, and fourth-year pharmacy students to undertake ‘authorised vaccination activities’ in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, for example, drawing up of the vaccine and labelling in preparation for the actual administration to a patient.

The Victorian State Government has announced that the first Victorians to receive the coronavirus vaccine will be able to do so at the following nine hubs at public hospitals in Melbourne and regional Victoria: Albury-Wodonga Health, Austin Health, Ballarat Health, Barwon Health, Bendigo Health, Goulburn Valley Health, Latrobe Health, Monash Health and Western Health. The first stage of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rollout will cover quarantine and border workers, and all people working in Victoria's hotel quarantine scheme.

• SHPA is aware that the Victorian Government is in the process of establishing vaccination clinics, and is preparing for a workforce surge for the vaccination rollout. They are currently consulting health services on this, with the proposed workforce to include pharmacy technicians and final year pharmacy students.
• Again, from anecdotal info, some individual health services/hospitals are also seeking EOIs from nurses to be involved in their hospitals' COVID-19 vaccine program.